Like most commencement droners, I urged the bright kids in funny square hats to do “Big Things” in life. But my message was that bigness cannot be measured in terms of personal wealth and self aggrandizement, even though such narcissism is the ethic being preached and practiced by today’s corporate and political elite.

Imagine “net zero.” That’s the wonky phrase attached to an elegant idea — namely, converting communities to total renewable energy, complete recycling, and a culture of conservation to bring humankind’s carbon footprint into a sustainable balance with a healthy earth.

Welcome to the Brave New World of “ag-gag” laws being pushed by agribusiness corporations to stop reporters, workers, animal rights advocates and even curious 25-year-old truth-seekers like Ms. Meyer from recording abuses that are routinely taking place on farm-animal confinement factories.

First, some background. A decade earlier, WCS parlayed political donations to Gov. Rick Perry into a special deal to build a low-level nuclear waste dump in a West Texas county, right up against the New Mexico border.